In ‘Anne Hathaway’, the poet, Carol Ann Duffy, shows a relationship between a man and a woman. Compare the way that she has done this with three other poems, each one showing a relationship between a man and a woman – one by Simon Armitage and two from the pre-1914 Poetry Bank. Use the following poems: ‘Mother, any distance’ by Simon Armitage ‘Sonnet 130’ by William Shakespeare ‘The Laboratory’ by Robert Browning

Some useful words and phrases for comparing:

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2 poems: use comparatives

1. Both Armitage’s
and Duffy’s poems are modified sonnets, using different aspects of the form.
(Go on with evidence e.g. Number of lines; Rhyme )

2. Like ‘Anne Hathaway’, ‘Sonnet
130’ concerns a romantic coupling, Shakespeare being the man
in both these liaisons.

3. Browning’s
poem has the unhappiest mood of the
four, ideas of jealousy and
murderous intentions featuring here.

4. Armitage’s poem also
intimates some strain or disruption in the relationship
although there is none of the violence
of ‘The Laboratory.’

5. Armitage addresses
his mother throughout, using the second person pronoun ‘you’ as in ‘You come to help me’ whereas Duffy speaks to the reader,
referring to Shakespeare in the third person such as
‘he held me.’

6. On the other hand,
when Browning uses ‘you’, it is an
imaginary
listener, the apothecary, to whom the lady
is speaking in this dramatic
monologue.

7. All
four poets use the first person but
this does not make them autobiographical.

8. The
poems share
the suggestion of isolation, Anne’s clearly caused
by her husband’s death and
Armitage’s by the changing nature
of the relationship.

9. The
rhythm in ‘The Laboratory’ is less
rigorous than in Shakespeare’s
poem, the range of beats in a
line varying in order to reflect the
erratic and
unstable character of the speaker.

10. Unlike the other three, Browning creates the effect of spontaneity
and immediacy
in the poem’s language by use of ellipsis and
self-interruptions.

11. ‘The
Laboratory’
is similar
to ‘Anne Hathaway’ because it is from a
woman’s perspective.

12. Browning’s
poem is rare, a
male writer exploring a woman’s
feelings while Duffy’s poem is unusual because
she has assumed
the persona of a real
woman.

14. Armitage, however,
focuses on one recurring image, that of the tape
measure, though it takes different forms in his poem.

15. ‘Sonnet
130’ is alsoa
poem that focuses on a loving and
romantic relationship.

16. Shakespeare
uses rhyming couplets throughout. Similarly,
Duffy chooses to end with a rhyming
couplet, emulating Shakespeare
for just two lines.

17. Shakespeare’s
sonnet differs from the other three
in that it is the only one with
touches of humour.

18. ‘Mother,
any distance’
and ‘The Laboratory’ have in common unresolved endings, the reader being unsure of what
will happen next because of how the poets have
chosen to finish their poems.

19. The
present tense used at the end
conveys a sort of certainty that
she will always
‘hold him’ in her head though the present tense of Armitage’s poem ‘a
hatch opens … to fall or fly’ has
the opposite effect of uncertainty.

20. Another difference is that the important
woman is not his wife: she is his
mother.